blood work. must get it done?

I had to get blood work done the other day and I'm hemophobic. My greatest fear is getting blood drawn. I got so nervous and upset and stressed I HAD A PANIC ATTACK. I also threw up. After it was over with I got into my car and just started crying and crying and crying. It was one of the worst experiences of my life.

For the next several days I was still very shooken up over it. Even now thinking about it I'm getting upset.

My question is:

When I'm ready to have kids, is there any way I won't have to get blood work done? The stress involved with getting blood drawn every month or so might cause me to miscarry. Also I just can't deal with that. I think I would rather die then to ever have to get blood work done again.

You don't get blood work done every month. I got it done twice. Once at the beginning, it will check your iron levels and other little things.. The next to time to check and see whether or not you develop gestational diabetes. Those are pretty important things to have checked. I'm sorry you go through that when you need a blood draw. I know me saying it's not so bad isn't going to help much, but it really isn't.. Best of luck to you and I hope everything turns out well..

you really only got it done twice??? wow! When I was at the gyn, the lady who took my blood asked me if I wanted children. I told her I did and she said that I'd have to get this done every month! Maybe she was being sarcastic. I hope so!

thanks for the response.

I know the pain isn't that bad... it's just a silly phobia I have. I try my harest to over come it by talking about blood and writing stories with it in it, and my poetry has it in it a lot too. But when it comes down to it, I'm still the same way.

I'm thinking of going to therepy for it. I'm not sure how that'd work though. We'll see.

I went through infertility treatment and had to have blood work done very often during the treatment cycle (IVF), which lasted about 3 months before I was released to my regular OB doctor after having success... but, as soon2bmommy said, women who get pg naturally only have it done a couple of times.

As for the therapy option, there is one particular type of therapist you should look for - behavioral cognitive therapists often specialize in phobias and have very effective methods for helping people overcome a variety of different phobias, even very severe ones. Just a tip that might help you before you have to go through that again!

No, you don't get blood work done every month. Like soon2bmommy said.........I too had it done also twice. That was it. Now, with my 2nd child.......I had more blood work done due to infertility. But, once I was pregnant and released to my reg doctor, it was the normal amount of bloodwork.

I hate getting my blood drawn too but something that helps me is if I dont watch any of it. My Doctor knows how I feel so when the nurse is coming to draw blood he tells me and I look at the wall and read whatever is hung up and I dont stop reading until the nurse says its all done and then I still dont look at her or the blood. I am not scared of the pain it is just seeing it I have problems with. Maybe something like this would help for you?

I went through IVF and I had blood work often. In fact, before doing the Egg Retrieval, I had blood work every day for 8 days!!! my Estrogen levels were too high and it had to go down to a specific # to start procedure. I would change arms every day... and drink pretty of water for dehydration. Then when after Egg Transfer I waited 5 days for blood work (nice brake) and I tested BFP. Then we did the last blood work 3 days later to see if my HCG numbers where doubling, which it did. No more since then.

But I have read in this forum that there are some ladies that the HCG # are so low that they have to have quite bit more blood work to make sure it keep growing.

I imagine if you are pregnant naturally, you probably don't need much blood work.

It is not a silly phobia at all ! I have panic disorder, so if something ... anything.. rubs me the wrong way I can have an attack. So don't feel bad!!

You generally only have bloodwork twice. I was on the unlucky side. I had bloodwork to confirm the pregnancy, then bloodwork after I found out (my profile). I ALMOST had to have it done again because they dropped a few of the tubes of blood ! I freaked haha. I had blood work at 24 weeks to check my antibodies (im RH negative). Bloodwork at 28 weeks to check for diabetes. Failed that test and had to do the phase two diabetes check, which was 3 needles in one day (one before the test, one in the middle, and one after)

Not everyone is like this!! I just seemed to have a rough go haha. However, I posted a reply to your question to make you aware that this is possible. But not EVERY month. Crazy nurse, she was just being a beyatch.

No one likes getting bloodwork. I used to get very nervous before they'd take blood... since Ive had it taken so many times over the last few months I just kind of got used to it. But before this happened I'd sit in that chair and just.. suck it up. I tell myself 'this HAS to be done, and freaking out isn't going to stop it from happening or make anything better'. I have a phobia of planes and when it came time for me to get on one.. I almost passed out (security didn't even check me, they just put me right on the plane haha). Once on the plane I used this same method of thinking. It got me threw. I hated every minute of it... but it got me threw.